Face Time, Fuzzy Dogs, and the Secret of Joy 

I've been learning a lot recently about our human brains. It has been triggered by this simple fact: As a person who has spent most of his life trying to help people find hope, overcome life struggles, addictions, habits, trauma hangups, and the like, I have not seen consistent, long term, sustainable transformation in peoples lives. I can inspire people, get them reading their Bibles, lay hands on them and prayer for them, teach them about hearing the Holy Spirit, coach them on life planning, mentor them on challenges with kids or parents or workers or bosses. But it often feels like there is something in us that pulls us back from where we want to be, to where we used to be. I have often described it as "ruts" in our lives. We keep trying to get out of the low spots, but we keep sliding back into the ruts. As a lifetime Christian I was taught that the disciplines of prayer, reading, devotions, Bible study, and church attendance would fill my mind with truth, and the truth would set me free and change my heart. But that is not what I have consistently experienced or seen, either in my life, or the lives of those with whom I have been offering counsel. So I have been asking, "What are we missing? What was present in the lives of the early disciples and their communities that turned the world upside down that is missing in our lives and churches?

Jesus commanded the early disciples to make disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. What if we have been leaving some things out of “all that I have commanded you”, and the result is churches whose "soil" is producing narcissistic people who claim the name of Jesus, often have some level of knowledge about the Bible and Christian religious practice, but whose lives look no different than the pagans they live among. What we are practicing is perfectly designed to create what we are experiencing. So if we want to live out of the "ruts" of our lives and actually experience God's joy and peace as a way of life, we need to actually practice some things differently. 

Which brings me to joy. As I was out walking with the dogs this morning, I was struck with what fuels them. I was distracted and thinking about things, and more or less ignoring them, as long as they stayed where I could see them. But they just didn't have their usual energy - bubbly exploring and playing  and generally being dopes. They kept coming up to me, rubbing their nose on me, or just walking really, irritatingly close to me. Finally I gave them my attention. At first I was irritated and first I just said, "Stop it," in an angry, "go away from me" tone. They immediately got these sad droopy faces and sort of cowered down. Their sad looks finally got through my distracted mind, and I gave them my attention. I stopped, stooped down to their level, looked them in the face, and said, "What are you dopes doing?" And they got all excited and wagged their whole bodies, and I rubbed the top of their heads, gave them a little scratch behind the ears, and boom, they were off to the races, their "joy" tank all filled up.

One of the fascinating things neuroscience has been discovering is that joy is the fuel on which our brains run. Without joy our ability to navigate challenges, deal with hurts, plan for the future, create opportunities... anything really, is severely limited. There is a reason God tells us, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" (Phillipians 4:4) God created us to run on His joy. But neuroscience has helped us better understand how joy triggers healthy attachments, helps us know who we are and whose we are, builds positive identity, and actually activates the cognitive side of our brain to be more creative, attuned, and effective. This kind of joy is beyond happiness, or a warm fuzzy feeling, or wanting to do a dance. Relational joy is what we experience when we know another person is glad to be with me, and that I am the "sparkle in their eye." It’s what we feel when we see our bride standing at the end of the aisle on our wedding day, what we feel when we hold our baby for the first time, and it’s what we feel when we take a bite of really good ice cream on a really hot day, and a million other things. It’s not just an abstract idea, it affects our bodies and creates actually physical feelings. God actually created this world to produce joy in our lives with the intent that he would be the first provider and only one who could fully fill us up with joy. One of the fruits of living connected to the Spirit is JOY! (Galatians 5:22) And he created it so that his joy would spill out of us into others as we relate with them. 

But joy is more than a feeling or a religious word. It is actually communicated through face to face personal connection, and specifically through the eyes connecting. The joy of the Lord is living in His delighted gaze that says, "I am so glad we are here together!" Jesus actually said, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness." (Matthew 6: 22-23) The Hebrew blessing is, 

“May the LORD bless you and protect you;

may the LORD make his face shine on you

and be gracious to you;

may the LORD look with favor on you

and give you peace.”  (Numbers 6:22)

Happy are the people who know the joyful shout;

LORD, they walk in the light from your face. (Ps 89.15)

You reveal the path of life to me;

there is abundant joy with your face;

at your right hand are eternal pleasures. (Ps 16:11) (many translations render this joy in your presence, but that is very different then the literal Hebrew of being in the light of God's delighted gaze)

You give him blessings forever;

you cheer him with joy with your face. (Ps 21: 6) (see the last note above)

My point in all these versus? Joy matters, and it comes from face to face delight. God’s face delighting in us, and us delighting in each other. It happens when we express our affection for and commitment to God and each other. It happens when we live out repentance, emptying ourselves of the things we have filled up on in place of God, and filling ourselves up with God himself. When we are fueled with joy we are ready to take love our families, overflow in bringing the joy off God to the lives of those who don’t know Him, and to care for and create good in the world. 

So if you feel like your joy tank is running low, start by spending some time meditating and allowing the face of God to fill you up. He really is so delighted in you! Remember a time when you experienced joy and knew God was connecting with you. Go back to that memory and spend time there. Allow yourself to feel the feelings and relive the moments. Try and do it for at least 5 minutes a day. (You may need to make a note of more than one memory. The key is that they were joy filled and connecting with God.) You’ll discover you begin to see the day and the world differently, and as you live in joy, remember joy, and deliberately practice activating joy, you’ll find yourself experiencing a remarkable increase in knowing the presence, joy, and peace of God in your daily activities, even in the hard things.